World’s first FLNG unit named in South Korea

Malaysian energy company Petronas has moved a step forward to deploying the world’s first Floating LNG (FLNG) unit.

Namely, the company has revealed that the naming ceremony for the PFLNG-1 unit, or Satu, as it is called, was being held on Friday, March 4, in South Korea.

“Today, we have pushed the boundaries and turned our technological aspirations of having an LNG plant on a floating vessel into reality,” said Datuk Wan Zulkiflee, President and CEO of Petronas.

The vessel, built in South Korea by Daewoo Shipbuilding Marine & Engineering (DSME), will be deployed at the Kanowit field offshore Sarawak, Malaysia.

The PFLNG-1 is 360 meters long and 60 meters wide and will be moored 180km from shore. It will produce 1.2 million tonnes a year (mtpa) of LNG.

Earlier this week, the Malaysian energy giant said it would cut its spending in 2016 which will impact the company’s current projects, including its second floating liquified natural gas unit, FLNG 2.

“These cuts will impact some of our capital projects. At this point, we have taken the decision to re-phase the Petronas Floating LNG 2 project, to be commissioned at a later date than originally planned,” the CEO said on Monday.

To remind, the Malaysian energy company in October reached a milestone by laying the keel of its second Floating LNG unit, the Petronas FLNG 2 (PFLNG2). The PFLNG2 is also being built in South Korea, but at a different shipyard – Samsung Heavy Industries.

Once completed, the vessel will be used for the liquefaction, production and offloading processing of natural gas in the Rotan field, 130 kilometers offshore Sabah, Malaysia. The PFLNG2 will have a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), and is designed for deep-water. The vessel was originally scheduled for delivery in 2018, but this will now be delayed.